SWP Calculator 2026: How Much Monthly Income Your Mutual Fund Corpus Can Pay (With Tables)

Put ₹1 crore in mutual funds and start a monthly withdrawal. Take ₹33,000–₹41,000 a month (4–5% of the corpus a year), and the money can last for decades at realistic returns. Take ₹83,000 a month (10%) at an 8% return, and it runs out in about 19 years.

The gap between those two outcomes is the whole story of a Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP). An SWP calculator is the tool that shows you which side of the line you are on.

This walkthrough helps you understand how long ₹1 crore lasts at every withdrawal rate, the tax on each payout, and what a market drop does to your plan.

How an SWP calculator works

An SWP sells a fixed rupee amount of your fund units on a set date and pays the money into your bank account. Whatever you don't withdraw stays invested and keeps earning (or losing). And here’s what you need for the calculation:

The results show the total you'll withdraw and the final value. It also helps you understand the timeline for when the money runs out.

SWP calculator table: how long ₹1 crore lasts

Assumptions: withdrawals at the end of each month, a flat rupee amount with no yearly increase, and returns compounded at the effective monthly rate. For ₹50 lakh, halve the withdrawal amounts. The number of years stays the same.

Here, “never runs out” only means the rupee balance never reaches zero.

At 6% inflation, ₹40,000 a month buys what about ₹22,300 buys today after 10 years, and what about ₹12,500 buys today after 20 years.

A flat SWP slowly gets poorer even when the corpus survives. That's the main reason to start at 4–5%: it leaves room to raise your withdrawal later.

The most ₹1 crore can pay you

If you want the corpus to reach exactly zero after a set number of years, this is the most you can withdraw each month:

These are maximums, and they assume you get that return every single year. Real markets don't work that way, as the falling-market example below shows.

Different SWP calculators may give you different answers

Put the same inputs into two calculators, and you can get results thousands of rupees apart. Neither is broken. They just use different formulas.

• Simple monthly rate: divide the yearly return by 12. 10% becomes 0.833% a month.
• Effective monthly rate: (1 + r)^(1/12) − 1. 10% becomes 0.797% a month, which compounds to exactly 10% over a year.

For ₹1 crore at 10% over 25 years, the effective-rate method gives ₹87,850 a month. The simple method gives about ₹90,870. That's ₹3,000 a month, or ₹36,000 a year, from formula choice alone. On ₹25 lakh at 7%, the first month's growth is ₹14,583 by one method and ₹14,135 by the other.

The effect is biggest close to the line between lasting and not lasting. With the simple method, 6% a year is exactly 0.5% a month. On ₹1 crore, that's ₹50,000, so a ₹50,000 SWP never runs out. The effective rate is 0.487% a month, or about ₹48,700, so the same SWP slowly eats into your capital.

Apart from that, whether withdrawals happen at the start or the end of the month and whether the calculator lets you increase withdrawals each year also affect the calculations.

What a falling market does to your SWP

The test below is hypothetical. However, it is modelled on what the Nifty actually did in 2026, when it fell about 15% from its January peak to its March low. Take ₹1 crore and a ₹60,000 monthly SWP (7.2% a year), and compare two cases:

So, if you’re beginning at 60, one bad year at the start turns a plan that lasts forever into one that ends in your mid-80s. The reason is that you were selling units at low prices while the corpus was at its largest. Those units are gone and don't come back when the market recovers. This is called sequence-of-returns risk.

What to do about it: keep one to two years of withdrawals in a liquid fund or FD, and take your payouts from that buffer when equity is down. If you can, cut the withdrawal by 10–20% during the bad year. Don't stop the SWP in a panic and pull everything into an FD. That locks in the loss permanently.

A quick note on tax

Only the gain inside each withdrawal is taxed, with the oldest units sold first (FIFO). Equity funds pay 20% on gains from units held 12 months or less, and 12.5% on gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year after that.

Hybrid funds (35–65% equity) pay your slab rate up to 24 months, then 12.5% with no exemption. Debt funds bought on or after 1 April 2023 pay your slab rate however long you hold.

Add 4% cess to all of these.

These rates come from Budget 2024 and have been applicable since 23 July 2024. Our SWP guide has the full table and an SWP vs FD comparison.

Example. You invested ₹1 crore in an equity fund at a NAV of ₹100 and have held it for more than a year. The NAV is now ₹150. You withdraw ₹50,000 a month, which is ₹6 lakh a year.

• Each withdrawal sells 333.33 units that cost you ₹33,333, so the gain is ₹16,667.
• Gain for the year: ₹2,00,000. Take off the ₹1.25 lakh exemption and ₹75,000 is taxable.
• Tax: 12.5% of ₹75,000 is ₹9,375. With cess, it's ₹9,750, about 1.6% of your ₹6 lakh income.

⚠️ Watch out (NRIs): residents have no TDS deducted on SWP gains. NRIs have TDS taken from every payout: 12.5%, 20% or 30% depending on fund type and holding period, plus surcharge and cess. You can claim relief under a tax treaty (DTAA) with a Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F. Sort the paperwork out before the first payout. Our credit card guide for NRIs covers the banking side.

Five mistakes that drain an SWP early

1. Expecting maximum returns. A 12% input hides problems that 8% shows clearly.
2. Ignoring inflation. A flat ₹40,000 is worth about half as much in roughly 12 years at 6% inflation.
3. Starting an equity SWP straight from a new lump sum. For the first 12 months, the gain in each withdrawal is taxed at 20%.
4. Having no cash buffer. Without one, a market crash forces you to sell units at the bottom. Build an emergency fund first. It's separate from your SWP money.
5. Trusting a single calculator. Check two of them, and plan with the lower number.

So, what withdrawal rate should you pick?

It’s good to pick 4–5% a year, which is ₹33,000–₹41,000 a month on ₹1 crore. Put the corpus in a hybrid or balanced allocation, keep one to two years of withdrawals in a liquid fund or FD, and rerun the numbers once a year.

How much room that leaves for inflation depends on where you start. At an 8% return, if you raise your withdrawal by 6% every year, a 4% start lasts about 35 years and a 5% start lasts about 26.

So, 4% is the safer anchor for a long retirement, and 5% works better if you will trim withdrawals in weak years.

If you need more than about 6% a year, no fund can safely make that work. The honest options are a larger corpus, lower expenses, or a few more years of work.

If you're still building the corpus, automating your SIP is how you get there. If you're setting this up for retired parents, our guide to credit cards for senior citizens can help keep their monthly spending simple.

For more plain-English money guides, start at the Monzy blog home.

FAQs about SWP calculator

How much monthly income can ₹1 crore give through an SWP?

At a 4–5% yearly withdrawal rate, ₹1 crore pays about ₹33,000–₹41,000 a month, and at realistic returns of 6–10% the corpus doesn't run out. If you want it to last exactly 25 years at an 8% return, the most you can take is about ₹75,300 a month. But if you withdraw much more than 6% a year, the money usually runs out within your lifetime.

Is an SWP better than an FD for monthly income?

It depends on your tax slab and how much risk you can take. FD interest is taxed in full at your slab rate, while an SWP taxes only the gain inside each withdrawal. However, an FD protects your capital, and an equity SWP can lose value in a falling market. Our companion guide on SWP works through the SWP vs FD tax comparison with numbers.

Should I stop my SWP when the market falls?

Don't stop it in a panic and move everything to an FD, because that turns a temporary loss into a permanent one. A better plan is to keep one to two years of withdrawals in a liquid fund or FD and draw from that while equity is down. If you can, cut your withdrawal by 10–20% during the bad year so you sell fewer units at low prices.

Why do different SWP calculators show different results?

They use different maths. Some divide the yearly return by 12, while others use the effective monthly rate, (1 + r)^(1/12) − 1. For ₹1 crore at 10% over 25 years, that difference alone moves the answer from about ₹87,850 to ₹90,870 a month. Calculators also differ on whether withdrawals happen at the start or end of the month. Plan with the more conservative figure.

Disclaimer

This is my honest read, not formal financial advice. I'm not your advisor, and before you act on anything big, run it past a professional. This is exactly how I'd think it through. You have the tables now. Plug in your own numbers and make the call.